Shape of early medieval Europe

By 476, the Roman empire had fallen in the west, and was replaced by many little barbarian Germanic kingdoms – the Franks, Saxons, Burgundians, Goths.

(MAP)

Justinian took back parts of Italy, North Africa, and Spain in the 6^th century - but the Byzantine weren't able to hold onto to them.

North Africa and Spain were conquered by the Arabs.

Italy was divided among Germanic kings (Lombards), Byzantines, and the bishop of Rome - the Pope.

Franks ruled most of France and southern Germany. (Franks - France)

Angles and Saxons ruled England. (Angle - English)

Eastern Europe was competed over by various Slavic invaders (Serbs, Croatians, Poles etc.)

Shape of Europe ca. 700 CE:

We begin to see the ethnic mix that has persisted until today.

I. ENGLAND

England was one of the few places where Roman civilization was completed destroyed by the new immigrants - the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes.

Roman withdrawal 410 AD

This was partly because the Romans had already abandoned the region.

In 410, the Romans withdrew the troops, leaving the Romanized British (Romano Britons) to fend for themselves.

Saxons federates at beginning

Saxons had been settling in England as federates since 4^th century - but did not become dominant until Roman army pulled out.

The Romano-Britons asked more Germanic warbands to come in as mercenaries.

These Saxons (and Angles and Jukes) came, invited their relatives, and eventually started to take over.

British resistance: King Arthur

(Gildas):. Under the leadership of Ambrosius Aurelianus, the British did try to fight back.

They gained about a century of independence (reached a stalemate after a battle at Mons Badonicus)

The legends of King Arthur - if based in anything at all - relate to this British resistance to the Anglo-Saxons in the late 5^th and early 6^th centuries.

The legends of Arthur appear to have developed out of late Welsh legends that suggest a British commander called Artorius won some victories against the Saxons (forget about Lancelot, Quinevere)

Anglo-Saxon takeover in late 6^th century

The Anglo-Saxons resembled the Germans you read about in Tacitus -

The spoke a Germanic language (Anglo-Saxon - old English)

polytheists (gods like "Thor" - Thursday)

an agricultural people

focused on war (their men buried themselves with their weapons)

their warfare was infantry and mostly small-scale:

armies of hundreds, not thousands

Roman culture died in Britain:

In what had been the wealthiest and most densely populated areas of Roman Britain, the invaders completely replaced the language, institutions and culture of the Romans.

Roman pottery stop being produced or used; the cities were abandoned;

even the Roman Christian church disappeared from England

In the west and north where native culture was less affected by the Romans, the Celtic language and culture was retained long after they became a part of the Germanic kingdoms.

In Wales, much of the Celtic culture has been retained to this day

However, at the very time that just before Christianity disappears from England, a British Christian, St. Patrick (Patricius) converts Ireland to Christianity (5^th century)

Anglo-Saxon kingdoms

They were ruled by kings - many kings not one

Loyalty to one's chief (whether king or other) was strongly valued in this society.

Kings were the chief amasser and distributor of wealth

IMAGES FROM 7^TH C SUTTON HOO BURIAL

(MAP)

Celtic regions remain independent

Wales, Scotland, Ireland

Ireland (never ruled by Rome) becomes Christian

–   Saint Patrick

–   monasteries become main “cities” of Ireland

Irish missionaries travel to Europe, Greenland

Christianity reintroduced to England by Pope

Christianity disappeared from England after Anglo-Saxons took over, though it survived among the Celts in the north and west (Scotland, Wales).

What will bring England back into contact with the literate Christian world was the patriarch of Rome - the pope Gregory the Great (late 6^th century AD)

Gregory (so the legend is) had seen some Anglo-Saxon slaves in Rome and was impressed ( "angels, not Angles")

So he sent a mission under the monk Augustine (not the same as Augustine of Hippo) to convert them to Christianity.

The mission succeeded, and England gradually becomes Christian again.

Monks of Britain and Ireland become intellectual leaders of early Middle Ages

So by 7^th century, there are Christian monks in England again - and also in Ireland and S. Scotland.

These monks will rather surprisingly become the leading missionaries and scholars of early medieval Europe.

(SLIDES BOOK OF KELLS – CA. 800 CE)

II. THE FRANKS

Unlike the Anglo-Saxons, the Romans in France, Spain, North Africa, Italy coexisted with their new Germanic rulers.

They eventually began to intermarry with them, and became one people – even to the point that the Germanic languages of the Goths , Vandals, Burgundians, were lost to history.

Frankish conquests

First show up in 4^th century AD - Romans settle them on their northern (Dutch) border as federates

By the late 5^th century, the Franks had taken over most of northern France.

At this time, these Franks are unsophisticated compared to the Romans -

illiterate, ruled by tribal chieftains, still worshipping traditional (pagan) nature gods.

good at making metal weapons and jewelry, but not the types of architecture, art, pottery common in classical world

.

One of their most important early kings - Clovis (482-511), did much to form Franks into a coherent kingdom.

He converted to Christianity -

(for the same reasons as Constantine, the Christian God helped him win a battle).

By converting, Clovis got himself the support of the Roman Christians in Gaul.

Romans start to serve in Frankish government.

Fusion of Frankish and Roman culture

The Franks learn from them Christianity, the Latin language (>French), some Roman administration (i.e. how to collect taxes), some social customs - like an appreciation for good wine.

Franks and Romans in Gaul began to intermarry - becoming in the end what we call the "French"

So in Gaul, unlike in Britain, the early Middle Ages bring a modification to (not end) to Roman civilization.

The Franks will create the most powerful kingdoms of post-Roman Europe.

Differences between Frankish government /law and Roman

Most important difference between early medieval Europe and Roman empire was the almost complete lack of government bureaucracy.

Legal system: wergeld and ordeal

crimes committed against persons, not against the state

wergeld: "man money" - payment of fines to injured party even for crimes like rape, rather than punishment by state. (repeat)

If payment not made, injured party had right to start feud between his family and the criminal's famiy

This is connected to weak state

Early Franks did not have strong centralized governments; kings depended on compliance of their warrior nobles.

They had a more simplistic and superstitious judicial system –

ordeals or oaths instead of complicated speeches of defense and questioning of witnesses;

A story about a feud between two Frankish aristocrats will give you an idea of what early medieval society was like. (Gregory Book 9.19)

Sichar, a 20-year old nobleman and friend of the Frankish queen - was having a feud with another nobleman named Chramsind.

He took a troop of thugs and murdered all of Chramsind's family - his brothers, uncle, sisters, and so on.

At this point the local bishop intervened - Gregory of Tours - our source for these events.

The bishop wanted above all to make peace - and keep this feud from leading to even more deaths.

So Gregory offered to pay the blood-price for Chramsind's family.

(Blood-price - or wergild - is the fine paid for a person's life - a murderer or rapists, etc would pay a sum to the injured party's family rather than going to jail or being executed by public courts (Roman system))

So Gregory, using church money, hands over a fortune to Chamsind.

This works - the two guys make peace.

Chramsind and his family's murderer Sichar become best friends.

They start to eat together, sleep in the same bed, and go out drinking together.

One night, after a long night of drinking, Sichar tells Chramsind to thank him for killing all of his relatives

"Dearest brother, you owe me great gratitude for killing your kinsmen since you got payment for them and you have much gold and silver in your house,

Chramsind didn't like this.

Chramsind thinks to himself that if he may as well be called a woman if he fails to avenge his relatives' deaths:

So he plunges a dagger into Sichar's chest.

And he gets away with this - revenge is acceptable in early medieval society.

So what's the point?

Certain loss of law and order in Europe after the fall of the Roman empire.

Sophisticated Roman judicial system - with lawyers like Cicero making eloquent arguments and a good police system - gone.

If someone killed your family, it was in fact difficult to punish him unless you did it youself.

Family feuds and private vengeance are common.

If you had the most thugs and the strongest sword arm, you could do well in the early Middle Ages.

But the kings and the Christian church were trying to change this.

Wergeld - blood money to the injured party - was one way to end feuds

The threat of God's vengeance was another way - the fear of hell.

power, and decline in the legal profession – not enough lawyers .

What was it like for women in Frankish society

The main difficulty women had in early Middle Ages was lack of independent means of support

Unlike in the Roman empire, or among the Moslems, families were not required to provide their daughters with some means of support - an inheritance

In fact Frankish (even more than Burgundian) law disapproved of land going to women.

Poor women without protectors were easily raped, kidnapped, enslaved

marriage was usual way of gaining support and protection

Husbands had more authority over their wives than had been the case under the Romans:

More control over wife's property: Frankish husbands gave them dowries to their wives - bride gifts - a relic of when men actually bought their wives

Less ability for wife to divorce: You'll notice in the Burgundian Code - an early medieval Law Code -

Punishment for a woman leaving her husband – smothering her in mire.

Husbands were allowed to kill their wives if they committed adultery.

Up side:

Franks did not segregate the sexes – women and men ate together, women walked freely public

And if you were a woman from a powerful family with a strong personality, you could live well in early medieval Francia.

Women exercised power through their husbands, brothers, and sons - if they could gain their affection.

Frankish queens - especially the mothers of kings - could become extremely important -

they paid for many early medieval churches, art work

involved themselves in conspiracies and wars

However, if their husbands tired of them, they could be put aside.

Frankish noblewomen - similarly - could be rich and powerful people as long as their male relatives supported them

If they had no brothers, they could inherit family property

III. MONASTERIES AND THE PRESERVATION OF ANCIENT LEARNING

Beginnings of monasticism: Egypt in 4^th century

Monasticism had in fact begun long before the barbarian conquests – in Egypt.

Remember way back in the beginning of the course – we talked about Egyptian religion – and its tendency to focus on the afterlife instead of the here and now.

When the Egyptians became Christian, this tendency continued

In the 4^th century, we get the first Christian monks – male and female hermits - who tried to retire from the world completely, by living alone in cells and caves in the Egyptian desert.

Soon some began to live in communities of monks - monasteries.

Monastic life aimed at personal salvation

Ascetism: They tried to suppress the desires of the flesh – the desire to eat, sleep, have sex – so that they could focus on God.

We see here a perception that the body and soul were in conflict.

Prayer

Manual work (to support themselves without inheriting property)

Beginnings of western monasticism: 5^th century AD

The idea of monasticism became extraordinary popular in the 5^th century - even appealing to well born Romans.

These western Christians began to adopt the Egyptian practice of living in communities of monks - monasteries.

Monasticism esp. caught on after the Germanic conquests.

Under barbarian rule, more and more well born Romans chose to become monks rather than serve their heretical rulers.

The Rule of Benedict, written in 6^th century Italy, will eventually become the dominant monatic rule

Benedict tells his monks to be "aloof" from the world.

To be servants, instead of rulers (there was nothing worse for a Roman than to be called a slave)

He makes monks engage in manual labor – work with their hands – every day; well-born Romans had scorned working with their hands, even having slave secretaries write to their dictation rather than mess with pen and paper.

Why are the monasteries are important for future of western civilization?

1. Transmission of literacy and classical learning

The manual labor most favored by Benedictine monks was scribal work – copying books.

They were also supposed to read every day, as you say in the rule of Benedict.

When the Roman school system collapsed in the early middle ages and few people could read and write any longer, the monks were the ones who preserved classical literature for us.

We would not have Virgil, Tacitus, Cicero, except for them.

They by and large saved western civilization.

2. Access to education for women

Some noble women gained independence by becoming nuns

Partly inspired by Irish monks, aristocratic families were setting up monasteries

(the Irish were busy travelling around Europe telling other people how to be holy)

Women as well as men could act as the heads of monasteries (abbesses)

This way they controlled great wealth, large numbers of people - both monks and servants,

And, above all, could get educated

The monasteries were the main schools of the early middle Ages - and women could learn to read there almost as easily as men could.